The Art of Subterfuge
by Celobra
Summary: Sword Art Online was not only released in Japan. In an effort to get more people to buy the game, 250 copies of the game were sent overseas to the United States of America during the Beta. Those Beta testers also received hard copies of the game as well as a Nerve Gear helmet. Our story begins moments after Akihiko Kayaba announces that this isn't a game anymore...


**Chapter 1: A Whole New World**

**Summary: **Sword Art Online was not only released in Japan. In an effort to get more people to buy the game, 250 copies of the game were sent overseas to the United States of America during the Beta. Those 250 American Beta testers were also given a set of Nerve Gear and a hard copy of the game when it was officially released. Our story begins moments after Akihiko Kayaba announces that this isn't a game anymore…

I can't believe this, there is no way he could do this. It can't be possible… but if it is… I need to be able to protect my friends. My name is Helgrind by the way, but I have more pressing matters for me to attend to then introductions. As the rest of the people here begin to panic, there are a select few who seem to understand what is really going on. It can be seen in their faces, the shock, the disbelief, the fear. If what Kayaba said is true, and these people don't get it together, then will not survive long. Though not everyone seems to be scared, there are a few that almost looked happy, like… I don't even want to think about what they have in mind. I must be strong, not only for myself, but for all the others. I ran away, away from the madness that this game, no this reality, has become. I ran through the city, with only one goal: to get away. Then something dawned on me.

I cannot do this alone, I will need allies. No, more than that, I will need friends. But first I must prove my own strength. With so many different ways to prove my own strength, how will I do it? I need to find something that others will be unwilling to do, and excel at it. That is how I have always lived my life. By becoming something that everyone wants, there is no way for me to die. Equipment wise everyone starts with a sword, so there is little I can do to distinguish myself. But then again, maybe there is? By now the only sounds I hear are my own feet hitting the floor and my blood pounding in my ears. I stopped running just before I reached the boundary of the city. Scanning the vast fields in front of me something caught my attention in the corner of my eye, as I looked to my left I saw another player as he continued to run. He was clearly prepared to abandon everyone and serve only himself, as for me? I was nowhere nearly that prepare to leave everyone. I had to go back to my friends; we had to make sure that we all got out of this alive. I turned on my heel and ran back through the now semi-crowded street to find my friends. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to find them by just looking around, there were thousands of people randomly running around in a mass panic. So instead I sent a quick message to some of them and told them that we needed to gather together and where to meet me. Being that we were all Beta testers, we were able to quickly navigate to our agreed upon location. A small isolated shop that sold unusual items. It was in a "less than high class" neighborhood. I smiled as I went because I knew we would be alone. When everyone arrived, we tried to implement a plan of action. The main question we wanted to answer: How were we going to beat this death game?

"We should power through it," Mattias suggested, "the sooner we get done with it, the better!" He emphasized his point by slamming his fist on the table. He is a little bit shorter than me but a little heavier than me as well. He wore a simple red tunic with his weapon strapped to his back, a two-handed long sword. He was probably the most experienced gamer among us. He also carried himself in a way that said "I know what I'm doing, you should follow me" but not to the point that he was arrogant or foolhardy. There were a few murmurs that sounded like agreement, but then I spoke,

"We could do that, but that would only increase the chance of our deaths. Remember, if you die here, there is no respawn, no second chance. You are dead."

The group seemed to understand what I was saying, but there were those who seemed to doubt that this was really a death game. They made their voices heard,

"What if he was lying?" "There can be no proof that when you die here, you die IRL too."

I turned toward the direction I heard the complaints from and before I could say anything Mattias stood said, "Do you really want to test that theory? He told us that 213 people have already died! If you still doubt him, why don't we have a duel, and when you die let's see if you respawn?" Now I've known Mattias my entire life, and I can tell he would have easily kicked this guy's ass in about ten seconds.

After the fool took his seat I took a look around; it seemed that we were divided: those who wanted to power through, those who wanted to take it slow, and those who didn't believe that this was a death game. If we didn't reach some kind of conclusion soon, we would go nowhere in this game. I knew if we got stuck in the starting city too long we would never get anywhere. So I tried a different tactic,

"We need to get stronger," I said, and the whispering in the crowd died down so I continued, "we need to become stronger, and that won't happen if we sit here and argue. I say we postpone any major decisions until after we clear the first floor, with any luck that will be within the next week or two."

That seemed to be rational for most of us, so it was the course we chose. I was thinking of different ways to get to the next couple of towns, when I realized that everyone was still looking at me. It dawned on me that, by making that decision, I became the leader here. Or at least they saw me as a leader. But being a leader is not something that I wanted to be. I wanted to be an observer, someone who would watch-and-learn before making a decision. I made my position clear,

"I am not fit be our leader, and this is not something I want. I am far from qualified for this position," I looked around the room and continued, "I do not care who decides to take charge. However, they should always put the needs of the group first. I, just as any of you should, will make my opinion known if it is necessary. I will give what I think to be the most logical answer to the problem. And right now, the most logical answer is for us to get stronger before we try to do anything stupid."

Finished with what I said, I took a seat near the door. We sat in silence for a bit, maybe it five minutes, maybe it was thirty minutes? I stood, getting tired of doing nothing, and made to leave. Before I could go, I felt a hand on my shoulder. A soft feminine voice spoke behind be just above a whisper,

"Where do you think you're going?"

I turned to see my longtime friend and short time girlfriend, Amator. Fighting the small blush that I felt growing on my cheeks, I turned to her fully and said loud enough for everyone else to hear,

"I am going to the next town, going to get stronger. I will not wait for someone else to clear the game for me." I knew that if we waited too long, it would be nearly impossible to get strong enough to advance in the game. "Those of you who wish to join me are welcome, but I am leaving now. I hope to see all of you in the next town by the end of tomorrow."

To my surprise, everyone got up and moved toward the door after me. Then to my shock, I realized they still saw me as their leader even after that little speech I gave about not wanting to be their leader.

I gave a sigh of displeasure and continued through the city. As we approached the city square, I made a quick detour to go around it not wanting to see what other people were doing. With the city far behind us, I slowed my pace to match that of Mattias's. I was in need of his opinion on a few things.

"So what do you think? How should we go about this? You know, trying to level up and clear the game as a whole?" He looked skyward and blew out a heavy breath before answering, "I think… I think the best way is to go after the more difficult monsters. You get more experience and col (money) for killing them, which should help everyone level up. I think we should only go after the bosses when we are at least ten levels higher than the floor we are on." That made sense to me so we walked in silence for a while. I soon realized that not everyone was on the same level; (you know what I mean,) as Mattias and myself. There were going to be people who did not want to become floor clearing bad asses, they may want to take up some of the other skills that the game offers. I brought this up to Mattias, "Hey, do you think we should split the group? Those who want to become warriors, and those who want to do… well you know, other things." He considered what I said with a thoughtful expression on his face and waited a while before answering. Just as he opened his mouth he was cut off by someone else,

"-You can't begin other skills like blacksmithing and such until we get to level two. So it would probably be best if everyone was capable of protecting themselves first." it took me a second to recognize the speaker as an old acquaintance of mine, Hastam. He stood a few inches shorter than me, and long brown hair that he had stopped trying to control ages ago. He wasn't always the brightest star in the sky, but he did have his moments. He continued, "It actually works out pretty well with what you said earlier Helgrind. You know? Postpone that major decision you were talking about?" I raised my eyebrows in mild surprise. Like I said, he has his moments.

We walked with the virtual sun setting behind us; I paused to look back as the sun just began to dip below the horizon. Despite the fact that I knew it was fake, it's still a very beautiful sight. Turning my attention to the path ahead I jogged to catch up with Mattias and Hastam.

As we continued along the path, I saw something up ahead. "Do you guys see that?" I asked as I strained my neck to get a better view. "No… what are you talking about?" Mattias said. "Yeah I don't see anything," Hastam said in agreement. I could have sworn that I saw a pair of red eyes in the trees in front of us.

Suddenly, without warning, a pack of wolves jumped from the trees and surrounded our group. Their eyes had an eerie red glow to them, there was saliva dripping from their snarling mouths as they bared their teeth at us. The sound of fifteen weapons being drawn briefly cut through the snarling of the wolves.

We were surrounded, we were outnumbered, but we were not outmatched.

The stronger players made a perimeter around the weaker ones and glanced around to see who would be the first one to attack. The wolves began to circle our group in a slow, almost calculated way; their eyes darting to the inner circle of our weaker players, working out how they could get past the outer ring.

Mattias was the first to charge at his wolf, his battle cry quickly followed by that of the rest of the outer circle. I made it my goal to protect the inner circle, so I did not attack, I knew those on the inside would become very instrumental in victory later in the game. However, I did not miss out on all of the action; (remember that unusual item shop we met at?) I started to use the many throwing picks I had purchased to gain a bit of experience for myself.

The wolves were beginning to drive us off of the trail because of their sheer numbers, and our warriors were beginning to be separated. I realized that these wolves were smart, very smart, and a lot smarter than they were probably given credit for. I really hoped that I wasn't the only one to realize this. I wasn't.

"Everybody! To me, we must stand together!" A commanding voice called out. This voice belonged to our bearded wonder, Thor. He wielded a simple mace and wore a tunic of orange. I finished off a wolf with a swift blow to the head from my sword and began to move the group towards the sound of Thor's voice. We found him near a very steep cliff face, when I saw it, I was afraid. There are a few things that I don't like, being put up against a wall facing a vicious pack of wolves was on that list and climbing quickly to the top.

By now night had fallen, and there seemed to be no end to the wolves. They just kept coming out of the darkness, as if they were part of the shadows themselves. Then I saw something that surprised me, when I tried to upper cut with my sword I accidentally swung too low and scraped the ground at my feet. Needless to say the wolf avoided the attack, but jumped far away when the sparks flew from the ground. That was when I had an idea. We needed light to defeat these beasts. I quickly jumped back and hurried to equip a torch to my hand, when the light erupted from the torch the wolves were practically jumping over themselves to get away.

"Light, they are afraid of light! Anyone who has a torch, equip it now!" I shouted to the group behind me. They seemed to get the idea and soon we were able to drive the wolves away and keep them at bay.

A loud cheer went up because we had won, we had survived. I whispered to a tall cloaked player that I had not noticed before that someone should suggest we set up camp for the night. I really didn't want to be the guy in charge. I said to them, "Hey, don't you think we should set up camp here for the night?" He nodded his head, so I said, "And then why don't you suggest we do that?" He seemed to understand what I was getting at and made the suggestion. Thankfully, the idea went off without a hitch. He turned to me and introduced himself as Tenebris, he removed his cowl and I saw a reasonably handsome face that was framed by long jet black hair. I had to look up at him for he was about half a head taller than I was.

We stayed at the cliff because someone, not me, decided that it would be safer to stay than to try and find our way to the nearest town. So a set of guards were appointed to keep watch while the others slept and as I settled into a comfortable spot (as comfortable as stone can be) someone approached me. I opened one eye to observe who was approaching me only to see small group of people consisting of Mattias, Thor, Tenebris, **(Joe)**, and **(Max)**. I had a feeling that this conversation wasn't going to wait until morning.

Much later…

"So we are in agreement?" I asked the larger group than those who originally came to me, "The best way to survive this game is to divide and conquer. Have people in all of the major guilds and have correspondence so that no one is trying to kill each other." A circle of nodding heads seemed to conclude the meeting, and a few people started to get to their feet, until I asked, "What of the others? Those who don't want to fight. Surely we can think of a way to keep them alive and well?" Those who had risen, now slowly returned to their seats as the realization kicked in. Everyone had a thoughtful expression on their face as they tried to figure out what the rest of the group would be doing. Some people were far too tired to attempt to think, they fell asleep where they sat. Then a single voice arose outside of the group, a feminine voice that started shaky and grew in confidence, "We could be shopkeepers, or merchants, or whatever. Not everyone is cut out to be a warrior," she finished with a bit of sass. It dawned on me that that was pretty much what I had said earlier, 'not everyone is cut out to be a warrior', and perhaps she overheard me from before? "That's very true…" I began cautiously, "but first we have to get to level two before we can begin to focus on that stuff." I gave a look around to see many people once again looking at me like I was in charge. For the first time, I took advantage of that, "Our main focus right now has to be getting to level two, and getting there alive."

I awoke remembering that first day…

That was almost two months ago…

Almost two thousand people have died…

We still haven't cleared the first floor…

**End Chapter 1**

**AN: **So what did you think? For a first time I thought that went pretty well.


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